HAVANA - Witnesses report that police Capt. Humberto Leyva Gomez on March 19
shot Fidel Roldan Santiesteban, 32, twice in cold blood in Fontanar, killing
him with the second shot. Roldan was a resident of La Lima in the area of
Lisa, between the highways of El Morado and El Cano.

Up to the time of the incident, Leyva served as sector chief in the capital
neighborhood of Fontanar. The victim also lived and worked near that area.
There had been bad feelings between them since the officer accused Roldan of
thievery in 1998. Charges were never brought or proven.

Leyva since 1998 had been threatening Roldan Santiesteban to his face and also
voiced the threat to the young man's parents.

On March 19, as Roldan was walking along with his brother Pedro Roldan Jr. -
one of the sources of this narrative - "Leyva shot at my brother, the first
time from a distance of about two or three meters. Roldan fell to the ground
with a wound in his right arm."

The second shot was fired from "only a couple feet away," entering Fidel's
chest and causing internal bleeding, according to a later finding. Fidel was
dead
upon arrival at the closest emergency center.

According to his brother, Pedro, Fidel's screams shook him up but he pulled
him
to the highway to wait for a vehicle to carry them to the National hospital.

Witnesses to the shooting described it as a "brutal murder" and a "criminal
action." Later, Pedro Roldan Sr. went to the Wajay chief of police, who
attempted to explain the affair as an accident.

But observers called this a case of homicide. According to the Roldan family,
Leyva Gomez at first was under protective custody at the Department of
Technical Investigations. Later, a spokesman for the National Revoluntionary
Police told the family that "it could not be established that this was a
homicide."